Side impact events in vehicles have been identified as one of the top priorities for both research and regulation with government requirements continuing to become more stringent with new occupant sizes and test modes frequently being added to published regulations. Designers and manufacturers are thus constantly being challenged to rethink and often revise their approaches to several vehicle structures, particularly vehicle doors.
While the vehicle door includes several features which combine both functionality and design and which must be configured so as to minimize vehicle-inward intrusion of the elements in a side impact event, one such feature is the door grab handle. According to the known thinking, consideration as to whether or not to include grab handles on vehicle doors is often based on whether or not the grab handle will be situated in the impact zone. This careful consideration is made because a grab handle, by its very design, must have additional lateral walls that are also A-surfaces. Lateral walls increase the stiffness of the grab handle region which tends to have a negative affect on occupant performance.
As in so many areas of vehicle technology, there is room in the art of vehicle interior door design for an alternative configuration to known grab handle configurations that will help to avoid some of the limitations of known designs.